Help! There's a creature in my tank!

[ophiura]

Originally Posted by rhino
Listen people I DONT THINK SHE HAS A PROTIEN SKIMMER. Has anyone here had a sucessful aquarium without one? The only way without it is to do weekly big waterchanges.

Of course people do a successful aquarium without a skimmer!! And she had very little bioload in a very young tank. It may be the cause, but personally is it what I think is going on? I don't know, so I am not ruling out ANYTHING.

 

[rhino]

Who runs a succesfull tank without one. I think its a standard. I think Nero had one but his water was changed

out daily with ocean water. LOL

 

[julied]

The test kit we use is the Saltwater Master Liquid Test Kit. It contains tests for Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, and pH. We check salinity at the same time. We use tap water--we have a water softener. No alkalinity kit. Should we get one? The equipment we use for the tank was purchased new and we only use it for the tank. We wash our hands before and after handling the tank or equipment. We do not have a protein skimmer. I've googled and will buy one this week. Any recommendations on brand? No sand on the bottom--rock. My husband mixes the salt according to the package instructions. No cleaning, paint etc around the tank. Tank fully cycled before adding fish. My husband cleaned the filter 3 months ago. Our pump is the Cascade Canister Filter Model 700 or 1000. Fish are found dead at the bottom of the tank, no signs of illness. Coincidentally, they always seem to die at night, and I find them first thing in the morning. Our ammonia was .25 at the time of the last test, but it is usually 0. For additives, we use Start Right.

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by ophiura
Of course people do a successful aquarium without a skimmer!! And she had very little bioload in a very young tank. It may be the cause, but personally is it what I think is going on? I don't know, so I am not ruling out ANYTHING.
I tossed my protein skimmer out the window over a year ago. But this is not a practice I would suggest to use in a new tank.

 

[zjhoward]

First of all, many aquariums can be successfully kept without a protein skimmer. After all, the biggest aquarium in the world doesn't have any protein skimmers. (The Ocean) The key to doing an aquarium without one is to do water changes and to have a lot of biological filtration, with a small bioload. To say it is impossible is biased and bad advice. My sister and I both have successful aquariums, neither of which use protein skimmers. I think you'll find that you can keep a quite nice tank without a skimmer, if you ever tried.
That being said, I'd stop using tap water immediately, either get an RO/DI filter or buy your water from an LFS. So much crap goes through the pipes of your house and water treatment facilities that you really can't control; it's just not worth it to use tap water. If you are using Instant Ocean, I'd stop using that immediately as well and switch to a higher quality sea salt, or buy pre-mixed from your lfs, most will know not to use IO. I'd ditch the fake plants and get sand for the bottom. I'd buy more live rock; shoot for between 1-2 lbs per gallon of tank volume.
Just my advice :thinking:

 

[rhino]

Actually the ocean has a natural protien skimmer. Waves crashing on the shore is nature's protien skimming. That is why beaches always have a film on them.

 

[petjunkie]

What about your salinity readings? Also how are you testing that, hydometer or refractometer. Topping off with freshwater? Any algea growth, how often and large of water changes, how are you acclimating the fish and are you buying all fish from the same place?

 

[julied]

Salinty is always right on. I use a hydrometer. We do use regular tap water, with the salt added accordingly, then add it to the tank. Water changes once a month, maybe about 10%. As far as algae growth, there is some, and our LR is becoming quite colorful, but that's supposed to be a good thing right? We purchased our first fish at our local fish store, and when we had poor results a friend recommended another place. She has had a tank for years and has had alot of nice fish from there. We did however purchase an orange star there, we weren't told that they were very delicate and it did not survive very long. We need hardy fish! We are trying very hard to maintain just a simple tank. Nothing fancy. Any pointers on some hardy fish? And maybe we need to adjust our tank care. I know not to use tap water anymore, espcially with our new water softener. We will purchase a protein skimmer also. Any other suggestions?

 

[el bob]

hydrometers are extremly innacurate, the lobster might be killing ur fish, or u have introduced some kind of chemical into the tank that u r unaware of, test for copper

 

[el bob]

u use tap water, do u use a dechloranator??

 

[modestmouse]

I'm a super novice but I have one question about your silk plants. Is there any any metal inside the leaf part of the plant(for adjusting the leaf shape) that might be rusting and adding harmful things to the water?
Don't know if such a thing could even lead to high % fish loss. :notsure:
Just a thought.

 

[solarscar]

Use RO or RO/DI water
10 percent water changes per month should be done per week
top off daily with ro water
Get 1-2 lb of live rock per gallon of tank water you have
get a fuge with macro
get the skimmer
prepare to spend money to keep a successful sw aquarium

 

[dmc888]

Not sure if its ok with the water softener.
I'm thinking it might be your ph.
Do you have any powerheads in there? They help with ph.
Ph also drops a little bit when the lights are off.
I wouldn't try anything else but maybe a cheap damsel with weekly water changes and i would clean out the filter before the new fish. You might want to try some distilled or ro water just to see if thats the problem.
Bleached corals are fine as long as it was totally dried. I use some dechlorinator also to be safe.

 

[poop_head]

I know before I got my good protien skimmer I had fish die all the time. Afterwards they never died.

 

[trainfever]

I dont have a protein skimmer and my tank has been up for two years. I do have a refugium though.

 

[ophiura]

What is your alkalinity and calcium, and what other circulation do you have in the tank?

 

[goblin]

I am not an expert by any means but one of the best things you can do is use RO/DI water. Water sources are different around the world. You said your tank has been up for about two years and you do weekly water changes? You could have some harmful elements in your water. When water evaporates all the harmful elements are left behind. Because only the water is evaporating not the harmful elements and then you top it back off with the same water with the same elements and its building up. Water is heart of your system. The best investment and first investment should be an RO/DI filter.

 

[foundanemo]

Originally Posted by Goblin
I am not an expert by any means but one of the best things you can do is use RO/DI water. Water sources are different around the world. You said your tank has been up for about two years and you do weekly water changes? You could have some harmful elements in your water. When water evaporates all the harmful elements are left behind. Because only the water is evaporating not the harmful elements and then you top it back off with the same water with the same elements and its building up. Water is heart of your system. The best investment and first investment should be an RO/DI filter.
your really should get one, goblin is correct. I had all kinds of problems with my tank, mostly because i'm a fool, but i got an RO/DI unit. It helped my tank an insane amount. If you want you can take a look at my nasty tank. it is getting better though. https://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=243092
Good luck with your tank i hope you get to have some nice fish.

 

[julied]

Okay everyone,
We're ready to start over again. We're going today to get the skimmer, etc. We won't use tap water anymore. That has to be a big part of the problem, but the lobster has done so well so it's a little confusing. I'll check the alk and calc also, along with purchasing a better test kit. More frequent, but less volume water changes should help. Once we get the water situated and cycled, I'll be back for fish suggestions. Thanks to all of you for all the great advice.